Few could have imagined the season turned out the way it did. The 76ers were supposed to be this, that and the other thing. What came to pass was the realization that this past summer was one of the uglier summers in NBA history.

Now the Sixers are a team left with holes larger than just the void in the middle cause by Andrew Bynum’s knees. As I have mentioned ad nauseum, the 76ers are in a very bad place going forward with no clear path to anything.

After the jump, are some trade possibilities that can be a change for the better next year or the long run. The premise is to do all of these trades or none at all. Part 1 will be for the future, “Hello, 25% shot at Andrew Wiggins and the return of the Anti-Gravity Treadmill”. Part 2 will assume the future is now

On last note, while the ESPN.com trade machine says the salaries don’t work, once Jrue’s $9.2 million salary kicks in, these trades would work.

Boston isn’t ready to tear up the Celtics and both teams benefit from this trade. Rondo will be sitting out the 13-14 season and come back fully healthy to start 14-15. If someone can get Lavoy Allen to play with some JAM (hello my first ever hockey reference), KG is the guy to do so. While it will be sad for 99.9% of 76ers fans for Jrue to go to the hated Celtics, this is a chess move and a necessary one for the future.

Danilo Gallinari will also be sitting out 13-14. While the non-3pt shooting Thad isn’t a great fit with Denver, that isn’t a concern since DC won’t be following him to Mile High. The West is too competitive for the Nuggets to spend an entire year with Gallo and Thad makes too much sense for them to say no. There is a concern that Denver might find a better deal for Gallo, but it’s really nothing to worry about. The 76ers are in a unique spot where the team can afford to give up a player of ~equal value to Gallo even though he is injured.

3.Spencer Hawes for Linas Kleiza and Aaron Gray; LK and AG have player option for 13-14 which they will certainly be picking up.

Fans can all rejoice as Hawes gets shipped to ANOTHER COUNTRY. The only negative is the subsequent seizures that will ensue from watching Kleiza and Gray do anything basketball related. There is no way that Toronto declines this trade.

4. J-Rich+$3 Million Cash + Boston’s 2013 1st rd pick to Minnesota for Brandon Roy, Minnesota has a player option for Roy which would need to be picked up for this trade to happen.

J-Rich is a perfectish fit to play in Minnesota. Rubio, Ridnour, Barea, Shved, J-Rich will give the Wolves lots of options in the back-court and he can really take Shved under his wing. Make no mistake, without the Cash and 1st rd pick, this trade wouldn’t happen. Minnesota was the worst 3pt shooting team in the NBA last year and Jason Richardson can shoot 3s.

5. Evan Turner + 2 2013 2nd picks (Ours+NO’s) to Utah for NOTHING

Evan Turner has worn out his welcome and worth the risk for Utah. If he works out at PG, great. If not, they got a couple 2nd picks and can be done with him after this year. At this point, his trade value is zero and he puts the 76ers over the salary cap under this proposed scenario which would limit the teams Mid Level Exception for the 2014 off-season. If Utah doesn’t want him, maybe Detroit, Portland or Dallas will.

The elephant in the room is that by doing this, the 76ers must resign Bynum. Give him the 5 year max deal but only guarantee the first 2 seasons. Year 3 is based on the 76ers making the playoffs in year 2, and it’s the same thing for year 4 and 5. While it isn’t a foolproof plan, it gives the 76ers the most reasonable chance at a championship without a modern day miracle.

Here would be the 76ers 13-14 Roster, plus some minimum salary players yet to be named.

Bynum: 17.3 Million, 19 mil in 14-15

Rondo: 12 million, 13 mil in 14-15

Gallo: 10.2 million, 10.8 mil in 14-15

Arnett: 1.1 million, 1.1 mil in 14-15

B-Roy: 5.3 million, expiring

Kleiza: 4.6 million, expiring

Kwame: 3 million, expiring

Gray: 2.6 million, expiring

If we assume that the 76ers don’t end up with a top 3 pick in the ’13 Draft, the Lottery pick this year will cost 2.6 million in 14-15. If the 76ers get a top 3 pick in the 14-15 draft, the cap hold will be somewhere between 4.4 million and 5.7 million for that pick. Being the eternal optimist, let’s assume 5.7 million and the services of Andrew Wiggins.

Bynum, Rondo, Gallo, Arnett will make 43.8 million in 14-15 plus the 8.3 million from Andrew Wiggins and the 2013 Lottery pick, taking the 76ers cap number to 52.1 million. That will give the 76ers approximately $8,000,000 to fill out the roster plus the $5,000,000 Mid Level Exception which can be used on 1 player or split among a few.

There is a lot that can go wrong with this scenario but it’s something to consider. In my opinion, this is an all or nothing scenario. So my question is this, if you could hit the fast forward button to the start of free agency in 2014, do you take Bynum+Rondo+Gallo+Wiggins+Moultrie+2013 Lottery pick and $13,000,000 to spend on free agents?

For those who say no, stay tuned to part 2.

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I like danillo gallinari and respect the hell out of rondos game (even though the dude is a scumbag), but do trading hawes and turner do anything to help the cap? I know this will sound stupid but I would rather have Jrue than rondo. I have a hard time rooting for the eagles since they can’t get rid of Vick, please let me be able to root for the Sixers. Any hope of having Jrue slide to the 2 and signing Jennings? Not the best option but a thought

1. You now think the sixers should keep Bynum after saying all year long he’s horrible and both worth the cap hit?

2. You want the sixers to trade for rondo who won’t play next year

3. You want the sixers to trade for gallinari who won’t play next year?

4. You don’t know how rondo or gallinari will be after they come back.

5. You want to trade for Brandon Roy who is worse off than Bynum? He’s done and retiring yet. J rich player in more games than Roy.

6. You always bash moultrie, why don’t you trade him then?

7. If your part 2 includes the idea of having all of these expiring contracts off the books for 2014, then it makes more sense to not sign these high risk expensive players. You can spend it on low cost players and have them off the books later and save cash.

I think the first three trades make sense, but I’d keep turner. His contract will go off the books after next season. You’re tanking anyway, why deal two first round picks to get rid of him. Let Bynum walk. He’s been healthy for one entire season. Let him go, maybe sign and trade him.

Even if this all happened (which it never would), we essentially would be the Brooklyn Nets with no depth, and a team with injury risks needs a deep bench. Also–what would the starting lineup be in 2014–
Rondo
Wiggins
Gallo
Moultrie
Bynum
?
Not a terrible looking team, but that’s really a pg and c with three 3s.

Plus this team’s too much of an injury risk, don’t love it. Enjoyed the article though, still a better plan than whatever the Sixers are doing right now unfortunately.

Qs
Is Evan Turner that bad? Some teams may give up a decent role player for him.
Thaddeus Young for Danilo Gallinari. Gallinari is worthless. Injured most of the time. I will give Levoy for him!!! Why Thad?
Why sign Bynum?? He is done, bet on it.
Why give up Spencer Hawes for garbage now that he plays ok?
Jrue Holiday+Lavoy for Rajon Rondo+Boston’s 2013 1st rd pick. Rondo is far far better. why do you think Boston will do that?
And, What is the long -term plan here?

What if we kept Jrue and Thad, but only let him play the first three quarters? That way they’d develop/not get rusty, but we’d crumble in the fourth and lose most of our games. Then in 2014 we still have a great chance at Wiggins plus still have Jrue and Thad as players. Hell, let’s do it every year until we get our super team.

I mean, this is a crazy idea that would never happen, but isn’t all trade scenarios?

I say let Bynum walk and Josh Harris needs to convince David Stern to make sure the 6ers get the number one pick in 2014 because of the Bynum debacle(for my NBA conspirators) ;-), if that doesn’t work I say give Golden State a call and see if we can put a package together to send Thad there for Harrison Barnes. I think Thad would be a good fit there and Barnes may be expendable to the Warriors.
I like the Rondo for Holiday swap.

this article is absolutely awful. how do the sixers have no clear direction? next year is a wash, but they set themselves up beautifully for the 2014 free agent class. the only guys on the books will be thad and jrue. they will have enough cash to sign two max contract players. paul george, andre drummond, or larry sanders would all be great additions. the 2014 class is loaded. there is NO ONE in this years free agent class. do not resign bynum and bank on making a splash in the 2014 class. it would be stupid to force anything this offseason.

I like the ideas Steve! If tanking is the goal I’d say this is the way to go, even though my love for jrue doesn’t want him to be traded. Rondos probably better but I just love jrue too much, besides I don’t think Boston does that deal. I look forward to “part 2″

Are you for real. all the Sixers need to do is sign a few free agents and they will be a playoff team. they just missed the playoffs by a few games. through free agency the team can be fixed. The team has managed to find good players in the middle of the first round such as Vucevic and Holiday. Steve Toll needs to get another job. He is horrible and would be a terrible GM.

Your ideas for the most part are ridiculous. The sixers have a great nucleus in Holiday,turner,and Young. The problem is they are playing in the wrong positions. Young is too small at PF and should be moved to SF. Holiday is a pretty good PG but turns the ball over too much. Put him at 2 guard and have turner come off the bench as 1 and 2 guard. Sign a legit pg like jennings or calderon. Draft a pf or center. Try hawes and sign another player at either pf or c. This all seems like alot but all very possible.

Steve, just so you know I wasn’t being sarcastic, not sure if you knew that or not.. I actually am feeling you on some of these. But to answer your question, no I don’t think Boston can afford that. And I would take that scenario only because I have wiggins, however, like you said, that’s a pretty big gamble. My only problem with your plan is that if we don’t get wiggins were completely screwed. As others have said health and injuries would be a little concerning as well. This would be the best possible outcome in the tanking plan, but for me it’s just too big of a risk. I think going for Bynum is just as big of a risk as this.

what article? Oh the other ridiculous article you wrote with Calderon and Dalambert. moving Thad to the three and Arnett to the four with Jrue, Evan, and Wright will allow the team to compete. The Sixers are in the situation they are is because coach Collins never played the young players. Instead he prefer to go with players on the decline. I believe Turner will thrive with another coach. Being a statue on the wings is not his game. I’m glad Collins is gone, now we have to go get Brian Shaw and a few free agents such as OJ Mayo, Al Jefferson, and Bynum(if he takes a two year deal at 8 million) and we will be back in the playoffs.

Honestly, as much as i’ve vehemently disagreed with Steve on this site over the years, I kinda like his plan here. Ultimately, no NBA team should aim to be mediocre. The Sixers clearly don’t know this. In the team Toll sets up here, there are three options: All the injured assets wind up healthy, and we are a good team. They all stay hurt, in which case we are very bad, which would allow us to rebuild properly. Or they walk the middle line in terms of health which would be awful, but about where we are now in terms of team ability. Setting up a scenario where 2/3 options are good…not a bad job.

That said, unless someone can point me in a different direction, I wouldn’t do the Holiday part. Steve is going to disagree heavily here, but i’d rather have him than Rondo easily. On traditional stats they roughly break even. On more of the advanced metrics Ronodo is only a hair better. Holiday was forced into a much higher usage rate, which in most instances hurts efficiency, and those aforementioned advanced stats a bit. Holiday is 22, Rondo is 27. Holiday is on a cheaper contract. Holiday has never been seriously injured, Rondo has. How is Holiday not the better deal here?

Im just curious why you think a core of rondo (crunch time liability), Gallo (basically an inefficient volume scorer, soft defender), and Bynum would be better then Jrue, Thad, ET, and Bynum. On paper we take a step backwards get softer on D lose the heart of the team and get older.
Also we couldve flipped ET and Hawes for Jsmoove at the deadline so the idea that turner is worthless is absurd he definitely has more value than Hawes. Turner also clearly has an nba body and skill set I agree he was by and large ineffective last year but I still see promise and Im sure alot of other organizations do to.

Option No. #1……. NO! Rondo’s damaged goods……Don’t we already have this problem?!!
Option No. #2…….H _ _ _ No! Thad young could be part of a nice young nucleus…..
Option No. #3…….YES! Although, Spencer played well towards the end of the season…..the Sixers could use the toughness. Both Kleiza and Gray, with expiring contracts would be an absolute steal!
Option No. #4……..No! Even though he’s done as a player……his expiring contract does llook attractive!
Option No. #5……..No! Evan’s has his moments ( Far and few…) But with his contract up…..this upcoming season…..bench him some of the time……at least this way, his healthy body could make him more attractive in a trade? Mr. Toll, didn’t you give Turner a few favorable ratings through out last year’s regular season? Hmmm…….

To the Question……No…..It would be a Yes, if weren’t for not only Bynum’s knees, but his desire……Who said, he still wants to be a Sixer now anyway?!!!!

Steve, because they’re two best players are at the end of their careers. I don’t think they would trade rondo to the sixers though with the thought of him possibly burning them In the future. They have smart ownership should wouldnt take this risk.

So your saying you like Jeff green, congrats he must feel special. I just don’t get how holiday is so overrated that we can flip him for rondo and a first. If anything they would keep rondo because he maximizes Jeff greens scoring ability. It’s alright tho it’s hard to come and the king so don’t feel bad that you look like a jackass.

1) No! As much as I appreciate Derrick Rose’s talents. I’d have to see how he is mentally…….Plus, I sometimes feel D.Rose is more a 2 guard, than the quintessential, distibuting/playmaking point guard.

2) DRB + TRB + Steals + Blocks……..No Thanks, I’d take Thad!

3) LOL!

4) Absolutely Not!

5) He might be better suited in a different situation? Maybe the Hawks? Or even the Bucks?

If the Sixers don’t re-sign Bynum, Nick Young and Dorell Wright , all of whom are unrestricted free agents, they’ll still have about $46 million in salary commitments for next season…. If, as expected, the NBA salary cap is about $60 million next year, that leaves the Sixers $14 million. Except they’ll also have to pay their first-round pick, so subtract, oh, another $3 million. That leaves them with approximately $11 million for free agency.